This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1562.
Should you try to connect with the Examiner?
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English downloaded more than 35 million times with Examiner-trained IELTS whiz, Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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On our podcast, we're all about connection.
So should you try to build a connection with your speaking examiner on IELTS?
Can it help your score?
Find out today.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good, Aubrey.
How are you today?
Excellent.
I am excited to chat about this today.
We got an amazing question that I have a feeling a lot of you listening will be really interested in the answer here.
Okay.
I can't wait to get into it.
Aubrey, I do have a question to start off the episode.
All right.
Let's hear it.
So did you ever have a really unfriendly professor when you were in college or graduate school maybe?
Yes.
I feel like I had more unfriendly professors than friendly professors.
Really interesting.
They were not trying to be our friends.
Serious academics.
Yeah.
Did you have big classes in college, like huge lecture halls?
Okay.
Yes.
Some of them, right?
Like bio 101.
There were a few where it was just like, hundreds in huge lecture halls.
And those were never very friendly.
But I think because it was such a big room, it would be hard to be friendly.
Yeah, probably.
That probably has to do more with the nature of the class structure and the size, right?
Yeah.
The smaller the class, the better that was.
But I also had some small classes where they were also not friendly.
Really?
Oh, no.
Okay.
It was just super serious and no nonsense.
Oh, my gosh.
Aubrey, how is this related to IELTS?
What do we need to know here?
Yeah.
So we got a great question about the examiner and if you should try to connect with them, what you should say to them.
So we're going to read this question and share this with you.
I think it's going to be so helpful for you to have this information before your test day.
All right.
I'm going to read the question.
So here we go.
This is from Thomas Chen from China.
So thank you for your questions.
By the way, guys, if you have a good question, send it to support at allersenglish.com.
So.
Yeah.
Here's the question.
I have a question about IELTS speaking.
I know that we're not allowed to chat with the examiner nor is the examiner allowed to chat with us.
So how can we build connections with the examiner during the exam?
What language do you suggest that can show our willingness to connect with the examiner?
I know building connection is where you guys excel and I do expect to hear what advice you have to offer.
Thank you so much for so many amazing episodes.
Well, this is really interesting.
It is interesting.
And I have a feeling if you're preparing for IELTS and you haven't thought about it before.
You're grateful to Thomas for asking the questions.
You're probably thinking that is a good question.
And I maybe should have thought of that.
So I'm so excited. to share this with you because this also is important.
It could affect your score.
And this is tricky for examiners.
So the more you know in advance about how to treat them, how to act, the easier it is for both the examiner and you.
Yeah.
And this is where what we talk about on All Ears English kind of veers from our advice when it comes to the IELTS exam Aubrey.
So bear with us, guys, but here's the truth, right?
We're all about connection at All Ears English.
Of course, connection is the way you get to have a happier life, right?
That's what we're trying to do when we speak English.
However, the IELTS examiner is an exception to this.
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
You are trying to connect with people that you could have a conversation, maybe a relationship with, in English.
That is not the case with the examiner.
You're not supposed to have a relationship with them and they're not supposed to have one with you.
They're very strictly told to create no kind of relationship or friendliness between you, because then they could be accused of being rude impartial, or they could be accused of being partial.
I mean, it could threaten their own career as an examiner.
It couldn't invalidate your scores like imagine, if it seems like one of you is trying to build a rapport with the other and then you did a great job and they wanted to give you an eight, but it looks like they.
You know it could lead to a lot of problems, right?
So that's not what, that's not the point of that relationship, Right.
Exactly.
Right.
So stay to the end, because we are going to share a role play of what happens when your IELTS speaking exam starts what they are going to say, what you should say.
And that but we're going to dive into some details to make sure it's very clear.
First of all, you know, why?
Why should you not try to connect with the examiner?
There are a few different reasons here.
Yeah.
Well, let's go into it, Aubrey.
What do we need to know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So first of all, they are explicitly told not to chat with you before the exam starts.
They are not allowed.
They're not just being unfriendly.
They're not just in a hurry.
They cannot chat with you.
They cannot say anything to you.
Yep.
Yep.
So you're going to see someone just kind of Being there, it might be very unnatural, right?
And that's unnatural to us as human beings.
Normally, we try to make small talk.
Especially if you're a very friendly person.
Yeah.
But be ready for it.
So if you say anything friendly or try to talk to them, try to start a conversation.
This actually will increase the awkwardness because they can't be friendly, back and chat back.
So it's harder not to engage with someone who is trying to chat with you.
So that will actually just increase the awkwardness.
So what we're going to do is we're going to answer their questions when they ask us and we're not going to say anything more.
We don't need to.
We want to focus on our answers to the questions on the test.
Right.
Exactly.
They will greet you.
They will introduce themselves and ask for your name and ID and they will ask how you would like to be addressed.
You may have a nickname or a different name that's there.
So you can give your first name a nickname or something like I could say Mrs Carter, if I prefer that.
And, you know, the same is true during your exam.
Examiners are instructed not to react during your exam in any way that would indicate how well you answered.
Right.
So you can't ask them questions or try to interact with them, with them outside of just answering the IELTS questions?
So you're saying, if you give a really great answer, something you know is a great answer, don't expect the examiner to look impressed, right?
No, right?
Don't expect them to look impressed.
Or if you make a joke, don't expect them to laugh.
They might, but they're actually not supposed to.
They're not supposed to react at all.
And that if you try to make jokes then it might be awkward if they are not laughing or just stare back at you.
Yeah, and it might throw you off.
You don't want to lose your focus, right?
So just understand what this relationship is for, right?
This is a few minutes out of your life and the goal is to get the score, prove your fluency, right?
And your coherence and all the other aspects of the speaking test.
Exactly.
And if you can anticipate this, if you're expecting this for them to give you no response really, for them to not chat with you before it makes it so much easier.
You know what to expect, you know how to act and none of this will throw you off.
For sure.
I love it.
Really good.
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Okay, Aubrey.
So are there any exceptions to this?
I mean, are there small things we can say?
Instead of silently handing it over, you can say, yes, here you go.
Yeah.
Right.
That's just a friendly thing to say when someone asks you for ID.
You certainly can silently hand it over.
You will not be docked for that.
They're not scoring you yet.
But that's a friendly thing that you could say if you feel like I want to just be friendly here.
Right.
It's not going to increase your score, but what it could do is it could warm you up mentally.
I mean for me, when I speak in a different, if I'm taking an exam in a new language, I want to kind of warm up my.
I want to warm up.
I want to feel confident in that language moving into before I get the first question.
Right.
So that could be a way to warm up.
Yeah.
Right.
Just even to be able to say a few words.
And another example is when they ask what they should call you.
Instead of just saying your name, I could say you know, Aubrey is great.
Thank you.
And that's just my chance to say a few more words that are friendly.
I could just say Aubrey, but that's a little cold, a little unfriendly and not you know.
But, like you said, it wouldn't lower your score.
But you could say this in a more friendly way.
Okay.
These are good little tips here.
So For our listener, there are little ways.
If you feel like you just can't stand not being friendly, not being connected, you could try these little things.
But that's not the ultimate goal.
OK, exactly.
And though this may help you feel like, OK, the awkwardness is a little bit less.
I've been friendly.
If that helps you go for it.
Right.
Yeah.
It's not going to affect your score either way, whether you do this or not.
And the examiner is seeing dozens of people on any given test day, right?
So it really doesn't matter.
Ultimately, you shouldn't feel like you have to break any awkwardness, because I don't think the examiner is feeling any awkwardness.
If anything, you're breaking awkwardness for yourself.
If you're coming in, I feel a little awkward.
This might help a little.
But yeah, it is interesting to think about.
The examiner, they have this very clear scoring system.
They have clear things that they are looking for in your answers, listening for in your answers.
However, what you say and whether you talk at all when you hand them, their ID will not be remembered when they're looking at that scoring system.
It has no bearing on what scores they can give you.
Exactly.
So let's do a role play and see what exactly does happen on test day, Aubrey.
So in this role play, you're an examiner, and I've just been called in to take my speaking exam.
I'm probably a little nervous, right?
Yes, right.
Okay, I'll start us out.
Okay.
Good morning.
My name is Aubrey Carter.
Can you tell me your name, please?
Lindsay McMahon.
Can I see your identification, please?
Yes, here you go.
And what can I call you?
Lindsay is great.
Thank you.
Now, in this first part, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself.
Do you currently work or are you a student?
And that last line is the beginning of the exam.
They'll always say this word for word.
Now, in this first part, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself.
And then they're going to ask you either about home or hometown or work or studying.
You know it's going to be one of those topics.
So that's the trigger to know that the exam has started, right?
And now we're just focusing on our answers.
Okay, good.
And they're gonna go right into it because they've got another student in the wings.
Yeah, no, they're not gonna spend time just chatting, right?
No, and they're not allowed.
Yeah, they're not allowed.
They're not gonna just stare at you.
They're gonna dive right in.
They're gonna get the speaking test done.
I love that the student asked this question, because we do talk about connection all the time, but it's important to know when to try to connect.
Most of the time, 99%, we're going to try to connect, but just not this 1% of the time.
Exactly, right?
I'm so glad that you now know how to talk to the examiner and what to expect, so that this won't throw you off on test day.
Yeah, guys, go over to IELTS Energy 1561.
Will your sense of humor improve your IELTS scores?
Love that.
Yes, this was really interesting.
Some great vocabulary and some great tips.
So definitely scroll up if you missed that one.
Love it.
Good stuff today, Aubrey.
We'll see you back here very soon on the show.
All right.
Awesome.
See you guys next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
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